The Orc Academy

As the orc pushed the polished wooden door with the palm of her hand, it smoothly swiveled open. While I was speaking to her, classes had already begun; therefore, I was greeted by the stares of all of the students. Step by step, I entered the room and walked towards the teacher; the man looked at me for a moment before speaking.

"Introduce yourself to the rest of your friends."

As I faced the entire class, my heart was racing and sweat dripped from my pores. I took a deep breath to calm down.

"Hello, my name is Jett and I'll be your new classmate. Let's get along well!"

My introduction received a lukewarm response. No one seemed to want me in there. The teacher guided me to my seat which was all the way back. After sitting down, my eyes wandered around and saw a familiar face; it was Lucas! In fact, the group of bullies was also in the same class; luck seemed to be on my side...

Time slowed down, school was as rumored, extremely boring; my eyes were mostly shut and I nearly dozed off. Every time I closed my eyes, my father's smiling face appeared in my mind; his extended hand was asking me to accompany him. Every time I tried reaching for his hand, his figure disappeared, fading into nothingness.

The sound of the ringing bell startled me; it was lunch time.

One by one, we exited the classroom and sauntered to the yard. Students were already duking it out on the battle arenas with crowds of people spectating around them.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Lucas sitting on the ground next to the wall; I walked towards him and sat down. His worried stare landed on me.

"Go away, they'll pick on you too."

"Why would they do that?" I asked.

"They always bully the weak."

"Lucas you piece of trash, did you do the chores?"

That voice belonged to none other than Arthur. Accompanied by his group of ruffians, he approached us. The color vanished from Lucas' face and his hands began trembling. His teeth gritted against each other as he tried to form any semblance of words.

"A-Arthur, I'm sorry. My mother was sick and I had to take care of her."

"Is that my problem?"

His focus shifted to me causing me to gulp.

"Who do we have here?" he said with an eerie grin.

I barely had any time to react and could only brace myself as his foot landed on my chest; the impact made my insides feel like they were being crushed. My body crashed against the wall, my spine nearly shattering. The orcs were a force to be reckoned with. Arthur's torso swiveled as his shin cut through the air and landed flush against Lucas' face; blood spewed out of his mouth as his body collapsed on the soil.

A group of onlookers were gossiping and cracking jokes at us; their smiles and laughter would be forever etched into my mind. This was the real world. After my father's demise, I promised myself that I would no longer be a victim. My hand scoured the ground and got hold of a rock; I gripped it waiting for the perfect opportunity. Arthur turned around and before he could even take his first step, I lunged forwards.

My arm moved in arc-like motion aiming for his head. His head spun around but he was not granted enough time to defend himself. The stone struck the side of his head, just barely missing his eye; his body tumbled over.

His arms were stretched to prevent his face from smashing into the ground. His eyes widened as he saw the blood dripping from the wound onto the ground in front of him. His head turned towards me and stared at me in shock; he couldn't believe that anyone dared to hurt him. He steadily got up still eyeballing me.

He darted to me as his knuckles moved towards my gut. Suddenly, time slowed down. I could feel the flow of air around me; I felt the change that Arthur's movement was causing to the streams of air around him. These streams showed me where and approximately when his strike was going to land. This was an entirely new sensation; I felt as if I was connected to the wind.

I moved my body away from the punch's trajectory and launched an attack of my own. Guided by the wind, my leg harmoniously swiveled, passing over his striking arm and made contact with his exposed jaw. As the air around seemed to push my leg, my kick had more power than usual.

I put his lights out; his knees struck the ground before his head thumped down. He laid down face first on the cold and humid dirt. His friends approached his motionless body before shaking him; as he wasn't waking up, they took his body away. The two of them shot angry looks at me before leaving the scene.

"Wow that was so cool," Lucas said.

I was so focused on the fight that I had forgotten about the orc. Truth be told, something else had my attention. I could still sense the wind and I could also see it. The streams of air appeared around me as white lines. A river of lines was present all around me; it was truly a marvelous sight.

"Ah it was nothing much," I replied.

The bull rung once again; it was time to head back to class. We were the last to enter the room; my eyes raced across the room and there was still no sight of Arthur. Our classmates' chattering ceased as soon as they noticed me. The topic of their conversation shifted towards the fight.

A smile popped up on my face as walked to my seat. Lucas also appeared more relaxed than usual; his burden had been lightened. I thought that the ruffian would change his attitude, but I couldn't have been more wrong.